Back in April, Lauren Braxton, daughter of Michael Braxton, Jr., niece of the Braxton sisters, passed away. She was only 24. At the time, her father told TMZ that she had suffered from a heart condition, and that could have been the possible cause of her death after she was found unconscious.
However, this week, the medical examiner’s office in Maryland shared with E! News that Lauren’s cause of death was not from any heart issues, but rather, the cause of death for her was a heroin overdose and fentanyl intoxication. The manner in which she passed is still undetermined. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid used to relieve pain. There is a high risk of dependence upon usage and respiratory distress and death can occur when combined with other substances and/or when taken in high doses.
When this news broke two months ago, the story was that a call was placed from her mother’s home in Maryland because Lauren had been found unconscious. When paramedics arrived, she was unresponsive and later pronounced dead. The most recent incident report that E! News shared was that Lauren was found unconscious on the kitchen floor by “a witness” who had spoken with her “approximately 10 minutes” earlier. After realizing the situation wasn’t a prank, 911 was called. EMS and the fire department responded, but their efforts weren’t able to revive her.
Lauren was laid to rest in May, and at the time, aunt Tamar was criticized for saying in a video on social media that she felt too “drained” to go to her niece’s funeral. The singer did indeed go, and spoke later about dealing with that grief, on top of backlash from people online who she felt were dictating how she should publicly express her pain over the loss.
“It’s just been so hard because, not only did we have to lay baby girl to rest today but for all the hate, judging, blogs, to say such hateful things about me all because i did not want to post her to see her on my timeline!!” she wrote on Twitter. “That was my baby! I named her!! Who wants to see that??”